Jeff Housenbold, managing companion at SoftBank’s Imaginative and prescient Fund
SoftBank
SoftBank’s Jeff Housenbold, who led the Imaginative and prescient Fund’s investments in corporations together with DoorDash, OpenDoor and Wag, is leaving the agency later this 12 months.
SoftBank shook up the Silicon Valley funding world with the primary Imaginative and prescient Fund in 2017, finally elevating $100 billion, funded largely by the Public Funding Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Japanese firm had been concentrating on an excellent greater quantity for Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 however scaled it method again final 12 months after a lot of its high-priced investments hit snags.
In a memo despatched internally on Friday and considered by CNBC, Imaginative and prescient Fund head Rajeev Misra stated that Housenbold is departing to “run his personal enterprise.” Housenbold has been with the Imaginative and prescient Fund throughout its ups and downs, main among the most high-profile offers with blended outcomes.
“As a lot of you realize, Jeff was my first rent and over the past three and a half years he efficiently led our investments in 17 corporations throughout Fund 1 and Fund 2, together with DoorDash (DASH), Opendoor (OPEN), Compass, Rappi, Alto, and Memphis Meats,” Misra wrote within the memo.
Axios beforehand reported on his departure. Housenbold confirmed the transfer on Twitter.
Housenbold, who was beforehand CEO of Shutterfly, had a powerful finish to 2020, with DoorDash’s IPO and Opendoor’s public market debut by way of a particular goal acquisition firm. SoftBank’s stake in meals supply app DoorDash has jumped to $12 billion, with the inventory rallying since its IPO, and its stake in actual property firm OpenDoor is about $2 billion, based on FactSet.
He additionally had some losers. In 2018, he led a $300 million funding in dog-walking app Wag earlier than promoting the Imaginative and prescient Fund’s stake again to the corporate lower than two years later because the enterprise struggled. Additionally in 2018, the Imaginative and prescient Fund put $240 million into e-commerce start-up Brandless, with Housenbold taking a board seat. Early final 12 months, the corporate shut down and was later recapitalized.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signing a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund and the SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund.
Tom DiChristopher | CNBC
Housenbold spoke to CNBC in March of 2020 because the SoftBank was coping with the fallout of the WeWork disaster and Uber’s struggles whereas additionally making ready for a slowdown attributable to the pandemic. He was among the many executives on the agency contemplating its “Plan Bs.”
“If the markets go into a chronic hunch of 12 to 24 months and there is not entry to public markets, we’ll have to have a look at elevating further capital on the firm stage,” Housenbold stated on the time. “There’s debt, there’s fairness gamers, there’s mergers and acquisitions.”
Misra stated within the memo that Housenbold will stick with the Imaginative and prescient Fund for six months, after which function a senior adviser to Misra and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report
WATCH: Softbank Imaginative and prescient Fund managing companion on Opendoor SPAC